Republicans want to end draft registration
Following in the footsteps of Richard Nixon, some Republicans in Congress want to end selective service registration calling it a waste of money. From Fox News;
The Selective Service has a budget of $24 million and a full-time staff of 130. It maintains a database of about 17 million potential male draftees. In the event of a draft, the agency would mobilize as many as 11,000 volunteers to serve on local draft boards that would decide if exemptions or deferments to military service were warranted.
The Selective Service is an “inexpensive insurance policy,” said Lawrence Romo, the agency’s director. “We are the true backup for the true emergency.”
Yeah, most of the kids I went to college with didn’t even know that they had to register for the draft. The draft had been in effect since World War II until Richard Nixon ended it in 1972 and then two presidents later, Jimmy Carter reconstituted draft registration when the Soviets invaded Afghanistan and he suddenly realized that he made military service so unattractive that he might have to bring back the draft. This was just a few years after he’d given amnesty to the draft dodgers of the Vietnam era – effectively insuring that a draft would never work in this country again.
During the 2004 campaign, Democrats started a rumor that George Bush had plans to reinstitute a draft, even though it was Democrats (specifically, Charlie Rangel) planned to restart the forced military conscription as some sort of idiot way to prevent war. Yeah, if there’s way to save money, they should shut down the Selective Service Administration. Especially since it would never work anyway.
Category: Military issues
Agreed and toss in a few of *-* Administrations that are nothing but sink holes anyway.
If they do keep it, they need to have 18-year old women sign up. After all, if they want to serve in the Infantry, fair’s fair.
Have to say I disagree, Jonn.
I sincerely hope the US never needs a military draft again – but history says there’s a good chance we will. If we do, IMO it’s better to have the plans and basic structure in place vice try to recreate them during a time of critical need. SSA’s cost ($24M/year) is also rather negligible when the Federal government is spending roughly 167,000 times as much annually – it’s about 0.0006% of Federal outlays.
And yeah, NHSparky – if women are going to be allowed to serve in combat arms units and assignments, they should indeed be required to register with SSA.
Comrades in Arms: I don’t like to see anybody forced to do anything. BUT – – – , Were it not for the opportunity of being drafted, I never would have been able to become a soldier in my beloved United States Army. Because my parents could not control me, the juvenile court had me committed to the state mental hospital, where the staff, unprepared to deal with a teenage boy, locked me up in a maximum security ward for the criminally insane. I endured years of terror and abuse, along with electric shock treatments and experimental psychotropic drugs, and in my lengthy isolation, my only friends, associates, and influences were violent criminals, deviants, and perverts. Discharged as a full grown man, I had no education, no skills, no resources, and could not even drive a car. I looked and acted just like the character in the Hollywood movie, “SLING BLADE”. I worked odd jobs at common labor, hitch-hiking all over the country, from coast to coast, often penniless, homeless, cold, wet, and hungry. I tried repeatedly, but unsuccessfully to enlist in the United States Marine Corps. Two major events turned my life around. First, I became a convert in The Church of JESUS CHRIST of Latter-day Saints (i.e., the so-called “Mormon” church). The young men in the church literally took me physically by the hand and taught me how to walk like a normal human being and to talk in a normal tone of voice. Secondly, I wrote a letter to President Lyndon Baines Johnson requesting my draft status be changed, for while other men were burning their draft cards, fleeing to Canada, and even outright deserting the ranks, I wanted an opportunity to make something of myself and do something worthwhile. Thus, my draft classification was changed. However, I still was not permitted to enlist. So, having been turned down by the United States Marine Corps – – – AGAIN!!! – – – , I went to the Draft Board and volunteered to be drafted. That automatically put me at the head of the list of draftees, and… Read more »
I am one of those “volunteers” for my local draft board.
I agree with Jonn. We don’t need a draft – we no longer fight the kind of war that makes draftees valuable.
Furthermore, the conundrum of the draft is that it only works when it is supported by the country as a whole.
When the country as a whole supports and values military service, the draft is not neccessary because the ranks can be filled with volunteers.
OTOH, when the country as whole disregards, denigrates, or dismisses military service as something that is only suitable for those who can’t find a “real” job, the draft is not possible, because there will be too many ways for people to get out, and those who evade the draft will not be subject to the social punishment that is neccessary to make a draft work.
In reality, the “selective service” organization is what so many other useless government programs are: Something that is designed to give cushy jobs to people at taxpayer expense.
I’ve gotten really cynical as I’ve aged, but one of the few situations where America still really impresses me is how it comes together when the republic is in immediate and genuine danger. We bicker a lot most of the time, but when the nation takes a sucker punch there’s a solid half decade or more where we pretty much all pull together behind the flag. Because of this, I don’t believe that we really need a draft. But it’s not going away, so it’s only fair to add women to it.
i feel torn- but agree with both view points: we are a all voulenteer force,
1st side – if we do keep it: the first born of any house be it male or female register.
2nd side- get rid of a useless office that wastes money and positions. use it for other areas that need the positions and employees
I remember When I turned 18 I got my registration in the mail and didn’t fill it out. The local Draft Board yokel also owned the country store out in the sticks where I lived at and was the post master. He called my house once to talk to my sister about something she had ordered from him. When he found out it was me on the phone he started giving me a lecture about registering. I told him, no bubba, ain’t going to happen. He started quoting laws and basically calling be un American. I kept calm and told him I was leaving to go to North Carolina the next day, so I would talk to him at his store. I showed up wearing my class C (Charlie) uniform. I guess he figured out Marine Lance Corporals dont get drafyed,
We should keep selective service in place just as a means to continually scare the cowards of our society that get super worried when the draft concept is mentioned. r
Good move to begin gaining the youth vote. The Instapundit has some other good ideas in the NY Post.